New Hannover 96 signing Franca is surprisingly short

We are used to signings from abroad not quite being what we hoped them to be.

Graeme Souness is probably your go-to guy on that topic, after being fooled into playing Ali Dia, but there are innumerable players that come from afar with fantastic goalscoring records or reputations of grandeur before woefully disappointing. Still, I’m not sure I’ve heard this one before.

Hannover 96 recently signed Brazilian midfielder Franca for 1 million Euros from Criciuma. All seemed well until the player arrived at his first training session. Manager Mirko Slomka took the session, and realised something was amiss. Standing at 181cm, Slomka had been informed that his new signing was a strapping 190cm. However, the coach soon realised that he was able to look his new midfielder directly in the eye, which isn’t exactly what he had in mind.

Slomka measured the player’s height which confirmed the issue, and the manager said: “What can I say? I was surprised. The one criterion had been to pay attention to his body size.”